This Element explores ideas about the sick and healthy body in early medieval England from the seventh to the eleventh centuries, proposing that surviving Old English texts offer consistent and coherent ideas about how human bodies work and how disease operates. A close examination of these texts illuminates the ways early medieval people thought about their embodied selves and the place of humanity in a fallen world populated by hostile supernatural forces. This Element offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to medical practice and writing in England before the Norman Conquest, draws on dozens of remedies, charms, and prayers to illustrate cultural concepts of sickness and health, provides a detailed discussion of the way impairment and disability were treated in literature and experienced by individuals, and concludes with a case study of a saint who died of a devastating illness while fighting demons in the fens of East Anglia.
By:
Caroline Batten (University of Pennsylvania) Imprint: Cambridge University Press Country of Publication: United Kingdom ISBN:9781009246255 ISBN 10: 1009246259 Series:Elements in England in the Early Medieval World Pages: 82 Publication Date:12 December 2024 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction; 1. Medicine in early medieval England; 2. Sickness and the body; 3. Impairment and disability; 4. Body, spirit, and disease in stories of St Guthlac: a case study; Conclusion; Bibliography.
